Toddlers and 2-Year Old Programming
"I'm just a kid, I have a lot of stuff to do yet."
~ Clint Eastwood
Our commitment to quality care continues in our Toddler and 2-year old rooms. Children at this age are eager learners who energetically interact with materials and people. We at the center realize that an environment and curriculum that encourages each child's growing need of independence is a basis for developing and mastering life skills and a positive self esteem. By playing in both large and small groups, these children will learn valuable social skills needed to effectively interact with others. While engaging in fun activities toddlers and 2-year olds will discover their likes and talents and will be exposed to fundamentals such as: colors, shapes, self-help skills, as well as social and language development.
Children under the age of 2 years old will have a notebook system for direct communication with their teacher(s). In this notebook the teacher will log the daily activities, feedings and the rest times of your child. Parents will be asked to list pertinent information that will ensure the individualized schedule of each child is up-to-date, to inculde but not limited to: the last time your child ate, slept and was changed, as well as mood and sleeping patterns of the night before. Parents of 2-year olds will find daily information posted in the Parent Area of the room.
Arts for Kids has an individualized program for the needs of children ages of
6-weeks to 2-years old.
All children will have individual contact and attention through feeding, diapering and learning experience.
Each child will follow their individual routine of feeding and sleeping set by their home environment.
The children will be provided with equipment to fit their educational development and creative expression appopriate to their age level.
Daily communication with parents:
~ A notebook for each child under two years of age will be sent home with parents summarizing child's activities.
Parents will bring back notebook with information for teachers.
Staff will ensure that throughout the day infants will be moved into different activities.
Potty Training Policy
If parents and the center are in agreement that a child is developmentally ready, Arts for Kids will begin to encourage potty training at age 2.
At 2-1/2 years old age, regular potty training is part of our daily program and routine. Children will be encouraged to wear pull-ups or underwear (depending on progress) and have plenty of extra pull-ups or underwear on hand. They will be taken to the bathroom every 2 hours (possibly more often at the beginning). If a child is wearing underwear, they will be put in a pull-up or diaper for naps, unless completely trained. We will use lots of praise for a "job well done" and lots of understanding when "accidents happen" if a child has a rough day.
Sometimes potty training can happen overnight and sometimes it can be a long process - we just need to have a lot of patience.
April 2024 News!
Toddler I
Hello Everyone! Spring is officially here! Our weather has been like a yo-yo lately. We
enjoyed getting outside on the playground. We played in the coupe cars, got wagon rides, and playing with balls have been our favorites. We played the chase game a few times. Our friends have had lots of energy inside (maybe spring fever) so we are trying to release it outside! We seemed to enjoy dressing up with leprechaun hats and St.
Patrick’s necklaces. We were busy with art projects, paint brush art shamrocks, handprint on shamrocks, and shamrock collages. We had sensory activities with cardboard shamrocks, round small covers for our gold (lol), water play with foam shamrocks, green items, frogs, sponges, and shamrock cookie cutters.
We sang “I’m a little leprechaun.” We read stories “Where is Bunny’s Easter Egg?”,
“I’m a Bunny,” and “Biscuits Pet and Play Easter.” We dressed up with Bunny ears, and enjoyed playing with plastic Easter eggs and Easter baskets. We even tried to hop like bunnies! We made a snack during our spring theme. We made dirt cake with Oreo cookies and instant chocolate pudding.
We have been working on our goals. Many of our friends are learning to walk on their own! Some friends are learning to share toys, some are learning to help clean up toys. Enjoy your month of April. We want to welcome Amelia who has moved up from the Infant II room! Hope everyone had a nice Easter!
God bless you all,
Karen and Morgan
Toddler II
Hello,
Last month we made lots of fun crafts and got messy with some sensory play. This month we plan to continue that, as well as hoping to get outside as much as possible. Our themes this month are: Spring, Colors, Gardens, and Camping.
Ms. Kenzie and Ms. Tina
Toddler III
Hello families!
March has come and gone and we had so much fun in the Toddler 3 room.
I have spent the last month getting reacquainted and building relationships with the kids again. I love seeing how much they have
all grown and learned since I was with them in the Infant room.
This last month we worked on using a spoon at mealtimes, which we will continue, and everyone has been doing great. We have also been working
really hard on using our voices, taking turns, and sharing.
In April we will be covering the themes of Our 5 Senses, Space, Weather, Earth Day, and Dinosaurs. I look forward to a fun filled Month ahead!
Ms. Erica
2's I
Happy April everyone!
Last month we learned through play with such themes as: Weather, St. Patrick’s Day, Spring, and Easter. The kiddos had so much fun at the St. Patrick’s Day party! Thank you so much to everyone that brought in a treat. It is much appreciated.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter. The kiddos enjoyed the Easter egg hunt and bunny footprints, and playing with my Easter basket.
Our themes this month are: Bugs, Week of the Young Child (Outer Space), Earth Week, Farm, and Star Wars/Cinco De Mayo. The kiddos love Outer Space and Star Wars, I will let you know what the fun days will be for the Week of the Young Child once I have more details.
Parents please make sure to have extra clothes in your child’s cubby and to check their cubby for important paperwork/artwork.
If you have any questions or concerns please ask me.
I hope everyone has a wonderful month!
Thank you,
Ms. Ashley
2's-II
Happy Spring everyone!
Hopefully the weather starts acting like it. We had another great month in March. The activities we did helped my friends with their eye-hand coordination skills, listening skills, social skills, and their engagement/curiosity. The first week of March we learned about healthy foods. We painted with broccoli and we also played with cooked noodles. The kids loved the slime from the noodles. We followed along with directions while we made the apple donuts and we had a lot of patience waiting for everyone to get done making it. The following week our theme was St. Patrick’s Day and boy did we have fun. We loved pouring the green water in the cauldrons and putting the coins in the green water. My kids were fascinated when we made rainbows whether it was our art project or our science experiment. We used our senses to find the coins that were hidden around the room. We also had a fun party. Thank you to all the parents that brought something in. The next week we talked all about spring. My friends really like practicing on their scissor skills. We used scissors to cut the grass to see what was behind it. We learned the life cycle of a flower. Hopefully my friends remember we put seeds under the dirt for the flower. The last week of March I was on vacation but I did leave them some fun Easter activities to do. They stamped with eggs, did pin the tail on the bunny, and matched shape carrots. Fingers crossed to the weather being warm so we can take our snow gear home. If you ever have any questions don’t hesitate to ask.
Ms. Laura
2's-III
Hello Families and welcome to April in 2’s III!
A huge thank you to all of you who brought treats to our St. Patrick’s Day party last month! The children had a great time. Last month was full of fun learning activities as we explored the themes of Healthy Eating, St. Patrick’s Day, Spring, and Easter. We kicked off the month with learning about healthy foods and taste tested a few -new to some- foods such as dried mango strips, fresh sugar snap peas in the pod, fresh mandarin oranges, and mini sweet peppers. Yum! We built our vocabulary as we discussed our favorite fruits, veggies, pasta, and sometimes treats that week as well as what we would use to catch a leprechaun, what we would buy with leprechaun gold, and where we would hide if we were a leprechaun. We also discussed Spring and Easter and what kind of animals and plants we see at this time of year. We worked on our gross motor skills as we hunted for gold, moved like spring animals, climbed, crawled, and jumped, and played a ring toss game. Our fine motor skills were built as we used a variety of items to make creative projects with such as forks, corks, bingo dotters, markers, stickers, and even uncooked spaghetti! We worked on our social and emotional skills as we made each other pretend meals, added blossoms and leaves to the classroom tree, collected gold coins, and explored our sand and water tables together. We are looking forward to continuing our journey of learning this month through activities that help us build our social, emotional, physical, cognitive, and language skills and will be kicking off the new month learning about bugs. As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please ask! You can send or message me through Lillio or leave me a note.
Have a wonderful month!!
Ms. Sara B. and 2’s III
